The Marley & Me Movie House is for Sale: Take the Tour!

Tour the Home in the Movie, Marley & Me

Years ago a friend suggested I might enjoy reading the book Marley & Me because we had a "Marley" dog. Jake, our sweet, rambunctious and very badly behaved Golden Retriever, ate our kitchen for the first two years of his life. I am not exaggerating. He really ate the kitchen....the whole kitchen. He ate the chair rail, baseboards, door moldings (both stained and painted), kitchen cabinets, the rungs on the breakfast chairs, the walls, the wallpaper, and the hardwood flooring. Everything. He ate everything...and then some. The repairs and buying new furniture was quite expensive, except for all the molding which I replaced myself with the help of a plastic miter box from The Home Depot.

Jake was unrelenting and no amount of training worked. We read books, talked to the vet and took him to dog obedience training, beginning and advanced classes. We tried everything! I won't even describe what he did when we put him in his huge doggy crate one night to avoid having him loose and unattended while we slept. You know that old rule that says dogs won't "go" where they sleep. Wrong. Whoever wrote that rule had never met Jake.

When crating him didn't work, I left him out of the crate in the laundry room itself overnight. Just imagine the worst thing ever and multiply that a thousand times and you'll be close. A hazmat suit would not have been enough. That definitely goes down in my book as one of the worse days of my life.

My husband and I had grown up with cats so Jake was our families very first experience with owning a dog, and it was a memorable one. When Jake went to doggy heaven at age 13, I cried without stopping for three solid days and nights. I couldn't sleep, eat or even swallow water. It was bad. I am a total wimp when it comes to losing a pet...a total wimp. Y'all may have to have me committed when Max goes to kitty heaven one day. Seriously.

When the book, Marley & Me, was made into a movie (starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) and I found out the ending, I knew there was no way this girl was going to go see it. I later discovered there was a wonderful house in the movie.

Have you seen Marley & Me? Well, if you didn't, or if you did and loved the house...guess what?! We can all take a tour because it is on the market and available for purchase! Apparently, it was listed for sale in April of this year, but a friend e-mailed me last night to let me know it has just gone on the market. All the recent articles I found today state it has just been listed. Ummm, maybe they pulled it off the market and decided to wait a bit and then relisted it. I noticed the price has dropped a fair amount from the quoted price in April.

The Marley and Me house located in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, is listed at $1.25 million. The real estate listing by Holly Gross Group describes it as a "greeting-card perfect stone house."

The home was built in 1830 of native stone and has 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. It definitely has great curb appeal. Ummm, is that a ghost looking out that top left window? ;)

The home sits on 16 acres of land and has a beautiful entry/driveway.

Let go inside and and take the full tour. I'd love to know if you think it still looks as it did in the movie.

This appears to be the living room..kind of formal, isn't it? I love the wall color. What would you call that color? It feels like it should be called "wheat." I just made that up...have no idea what color it really is. Love the built-in bookshelves. Wonder where those French doors lead?

This home is owned by John and Lisa Ennis. Is that the front door? It looks like a front door but I doubt the home would open into a dining area. Ummm, maybe we'll figure this out as we move through the tour.

You can really see the spacial relationship between the above dining area and the living room in this pic below. One interesting fact about the movie: the furniture, quilts and artwork belonging to the Ennises' actually stayed in the home during the filming which lasted two months.

This is definitely the dining room. Do you like the casual feel of this house? The living room seemed to be more formal than the dining room. From the photo in Philadelphia Magazine, the light fixture appears to be real candles and not electric.

A view of the dining room from the opposite angle. It's obvious the owners value hand-made crafted items, like the beautiful wall hanging. I wonder if that's an antique floor cloth? The bowl on the table is filled with sea urchins one of the owners collected on a dive in the Bahamas.

The Kitchen: Interesting how you step down to enter the kitchen. It appears to be on the basement level, doesn't it? I love a table in the kitchen itself...feels like home. I bet this is where the family normally ate.

A close-up of the kitchen from an article in Philadelphia Magazine HERE.

Wow, look at that old stove! The collection of blue and white transferware is really stunning against the warmth of the old wood.

This home feels very much like those I've toured on trips to Colonial Williamsburg.

Here's a close-up of the cabinet on the right side in the above photo.

This must be the family room or den...looks comfy and cozy.

Ahh, I think we know where the French doors led...onto a beautiful screened-in porch.

Back inside, it's time to go upstairs. The main part of the home is three stories tall.

I'm guessing this is the Master Bedroom...

I've heard these gas stoves can really warm up a space.

This bath has beautiful Carrara tile and a wonderful claw foot soaking tub. It also has a "frameless" glass shower. I like that!

Another one of the 5 bedrooms...

Another bedroom...and this one is furnished with twin beds. We see more of the families collected handmade needlework decorating the walls.

An exercise room in what was probably once attic space. This would be a cheerful, sunny place to work out.

There are four other buildings on the property and one houses the studio for Lisa Ennis who is a fine arts photographer of landscapes and botanicals. I wonder if this is her studio.

~~~SIGH~~~ Now, this is "greeting-card perfect," isn't it? What a great barn!

I think this photo below from Philadelphia Magazine is my favorite picture of the old stone farmhouse. Since I never saw the movie, Marley & Me (and probably never will since I'm a major weenie) is this mostly how it looked in the movie when it came out in 2008? The listing indicates there have been some renovations, so I'm guessing it doesn't look exactly as it did in the movie. If you saw the movie, fill me in on any changes or what still looks the same. I'd love to know!

For my kitchen renovation, click HERE

You'll find additional Movie House Tours HERE OR click on any picture link below.